How I Stopped Eating Food

http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

by juletide • 13 years ago

70 43 13 years ago

robrhinehart.com

bluetidepro• 13 years ago

> Error establishing a database connection

Anyone have a mirror?

modoc• 13 years ago

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s2/sh/aa569b56-0cc3-410f-a775...

ankitml• 13 years ago

Is he serious?? Sounds completely magical. Please share how to make this thing.

hcarvalhoalves3• 13 years ago

TL;DR Someone trying to sell you on another crazy diet.

A complete enteral diet (when you're in the hospital and they feed it to you in a tube) is both extremely hard to achieve and expensive, not to mention the collateral effects. Then there's this guy claiming that he can not only live on a carb/protein/fat shake he made on his kitchen, but that it gave him superpowers and it's cheap to boot. He even gave it a market name already.

Not flying with me.

nathan_f772• 13 years ago

I agree that this is most likely a scam, but just wanted to point out that the 'market name' is just a reference to a movie called 'Soylent Green': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

guylhem4• 13 years ago

I think you are mistaking parenteral and enteral. The difference is where the tube goes. Feeding someone with a tube is difficult only if the tube goes into the bloodstream.

If it goes to the stomach, a normal meal + a blender is all that is needed (or the fancy and overpriced equivalents sold for a small fortune to the hospitals)

If it goes to the bloodstream, it can't be food, and the problem is we don't exactly know yet everything it should contain.

For example, I remember in ICUs in the 1990s and early 2000, carnithin was the topic of many discussions. See for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2115077

There must be a new fad now.

DigitalTurk• 13 years ago

> Error establishing a database connection

Seems like the author's blog is starving too.

schoper• 13 years ago

He mentions that his bowel movements have stopped on the "Soylent." I'd watch out for gall bladder disease if I were him.

kevinthew• 13 years ago

"My cravings and tastes closely matched with my needs. One day I accidentally put in a tablespoon of salt, rather than a teaspoon. I immediately noticed the mixture tasted unpleasantly salty. When I was deficient of iron I felt a strong craving for red meat. As I started running longer distances I craved more carbohydrates. After a week advertisements for fast food looked repulsive. All I crave is Soylent." Man, this is super creepy stuff

IheartApplesDix• 13 years ago

This seems to be some kind of writing experiment about the implications of "soylent" rather than a technical piece. It tries to speak toward the sociology food in culture, but it doesn't really go into great depth. What is the point of this? Considering the present day use of factory farms, I think any impact it desires is cheapened.

hammock• 13 years ago

It looks remarkably like the "bowl of snot" that Neo and his buddies eat in the Matrix.

"It's a single-celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEnJfZ9joY

bitwize• 13 years ago

How do you know it's not Tastee Wheat? Do any of us know what Tastee Wheat looked or tasted like?

coderzach• 13 years ago

Soylent Green is people!

ckluis• 13 years ago

I was just thinking does no one remember classic sci fi?

mchahn• 13 years ago

But Soylent Green wasn't people. That was a hollywood fantasy to sell more tickets. It was actually an artificial meat product engineered to taste like people. The book was awesome, the movie sucked. I remember in the movie that a front-loader was scooping up people to slaughter.

stove• 13 years ago

Anyone else see an Onion headline in this?

"Area Man Loses Weight By Not Eating For A Month"

eggbrain• 13 years ago

I get immediately suspicious when the ingredients to make such a product aren't listed. Run faster, think clearer, all for 1/5th the price, with just one simple trick a single mom found!

I'll assume this must be either satire or a sales pitch until proven otherwise -- I fully expect the first ingredient if listed to be "premium snake oil".

Jemm• 13 years ago

The formula has been posted.

guylhem4• 13 years ago

I love this approach, and I would like to know more about the actual composition of his Soylent meal to check for other "missing things" such as iron which was mentioned in the article, and whether the correct biodisponible versions are used (you can't get much iron from eating screws). I'm especially curious about the proteins.

Then after careful checking, I'd like to try that myself!

Food is a waste of time. It is something you do because it has to be done. You can save time by eating out (but you may still lose time standing in line, going there, etc.) but you are just trading time for money and getting food that might not be optimal for your body.

At the moment, the best I've found is microwaving frozen food as the best tradeoff between time spent/healthy content/price : frozen minced meat and whole rice can be cooked in ~ 3 minutes for 1 person. I add a fruit, usually an apple and I call that a meal.

Sometimes I replace the minced meat by a box of tuna or herring (once or twice per weak) to get fish oil, and on weekends the meal is replaced by french saucisson and cheese (ready in 30 seconds : you cut yourself a portion!! even better !!) + fruit. I drink half a glass of acerola/mango/etc. juice each day for vitamins I could be missing.

I eat when I feel hungry - usually in the morning and in the afternoon, sometimes before going to bed I add an apple (I've noticed if I don't, I wake up around 4 am - maybe due to a too low glucose level). I do workout about 3 times a week - I then replace the apple by a full meal - same standard composition.

Not only do I feel better as the author mentioned (but I doubt that - these many little things could be just a placebo effect) but also, above all, I feel free.

I don't have to overthink what food I have to prepare or chose or anything like this - just sticking to the default. It's like creating a good habit - easy to follow is the selling point, healthy effects are sideproducts. No time lost in the supermarket. Sometimes I buy random stuff to check if it could be added to my default, but so far nothing stuck.

Now after reading that article I would like to improve it even more : I could replace the weekend saucisson + cheese by something that takes even less time, and that could be drunk.

That's hacking the body :-)

derefr• 13 years ago

> Food is a waste of time. It is something you do because it has to be done.

Maybe for you. Personally, I code so I can afford to go out for--among other things--fancy meals.

napoleond• 13 years ago

Enjoy food. Use it as a break. You probably need it.

hcarvalhoalves3• 13 years ago

> Food is a waste of time. It is something you do because it has to be done.

To think like this is sickening. Food is one of the few pleasures in life.

PS: Makes me scared you're a MD PhD, but still don't see how absurd the original blog post is, maybe even a hoax.

guylhem4• 13 years ago

You have your views on life and I respect them. You may enjoy spending hours everyday preparing your food, and hours eating it - why not.

But personally, I don't. Just like you, I have my own views, which I enjoy enough to openly share them, in full honesty.

For me food is a nuisance that I want to take as little time as possible (preparation + consumption). I enjoy spending my time on different things.

The original blog post might be questionable (the iron thing - I can't imagine how he might have missed that!) and light on details. It could also be a hoax.

But for the one time I find someone who shares my views, as opposed to the prevalent "food is the most important thing in life - food is sacred - spend all your time on it", I want to know more about his approach, to find mistakes, correct them, and experiment.

Who knows, maybe more people think the same secretly? Maybe some day it will be the most prevalent view on food?

I was somehow expecting some negative replies, but not something just ad hominem like this, and devoid of content. Still, I wanted to share my current approach, in the hope others could find it interesting as a baseline to experiment upon, and also to get their own (hopefully someone else is also trying to optimize the food problem on time + health constraints)

So relax, I'm experimenting my own regimen on myself, and you're free to disagree.

TheCapn• 13 years ago

There is no easy way out of health. That's what fad diets forget to mention. People who find themselves in bad health situations (obesity, illness, etc.) due to diet want a fix that is as effortless as it was to dig that hole they've found themselves in. If it was easy, we'd all be models by now.

Its good to hear you've found a routine that works for you but I have a hard time believing it is optimal for any person's health. It seems minimal and lacking variety that unless supplemented by additional vitamins will leave you lacking in the long run. But I'll stop judging because your post obviously doesn't go into detail about your entire lifestyle, it would be wrong of me to judge based on this alone.

Despite that though you've hit on a number of points that everyone could learn from: eat when you're hungry, not because its scheduled, work out regularly, substitute your meals when you need more energy while maintaining a macro-nutrient balance, listen when your body is acting weird...

guylhem4• 13 years ago

You're right, there does not seem to be a model regimen - there are just too many of them.

It reminds me of an article I've read recently on lesswrong about the limits of self-experimentation : the results are not transposable because of each person different situation.

Yet one has to take a baseline and work upon it (experiment, rinse & repeat), especially when considering the daily recommandation are of questionable quality. Proper experimentation to find them scientifically might be ethically objectionable.

IMHO the only valid evaluation is a self evaluation as described by how one feels and the lack of diseases caused by deficiencies.

Still, I don't believe my routine is optimal - from a nutrition standpoint, variety is always better than a routine (ex: vegans frequently have problems with B12).

I wish there was a known "good" routine, but IMHO even without it, the good outweight the bad - as in time and effort saved and put to some better use, not having to think about each meal individually.

Anyway, I spend some time reevaluating the routine every month or so, but that is nothing when spread to the number of meals covered, especially if the resulting default choices provide health benefits on the side.

[At the moment, I am worried about underdosing important vitamins and mineral, especially due to the low fruits & vegetables intake, even if there are also advocados and nuts on the weekends, so I'm considering adding a fresh tomato per meal.]

BTW, before the "important" weekly workout, I take milk and cornflakes (1 minute to prepare- and there come VitD too, thanks to the milk!) - a kid brand I had chosen for its content in B1/B6/B12 at the time I was using "usual" rice. It's light, but I noticed it improves the intensity of the workout (reps are stopped when they become physically impossible, with a 45 min deadline for the total duration of the session) It is supplemented by drinking liquid cane sugar + 80% water during training.

Anyway my routine is quite minimal and lack variety, but I'm not overtly worried, considering I have to eat outside at least twice per week, which should bring enough variety to fix any real deficiency.

I would be interested on your take - especially if you follow a routine and have identified potential problems in your own routine.

hudell2• 13 years ago

I still dream of a day when I will be able to drink something with water and never ever need to eat anything again. I hate having to eat. I hate the taste of 90% of things. And I often think about how much time I lose eating.

And the worst thing in the world is when I need to have lunch with someone else.

qu4z-2• 13 years ago

Do you ever think about how much time you're losing thinking about how much time you're losing eating?

juletide• 13 years ago

for clarification: I'm fairly certain this piece is meant to be a satire of lifehacker/self-improvement/etc-ish block posts...

aw3c2• 13 years ago

Same here. 3.14 miles is a nice touch. ;)

drinchev• 13 years ago

So how can we make this Soyent? If it really costs 50$/month then it should be easy to made.

up_and_up• 13 years ago

"Error establishing a database connection"

As a developer, yeah thats usually when the pager goes off and I have to put down my lunch.

kbutler• 13 years ago

An engineered food replace drink named "Soylent"? It's a spoof.

Researched every substance the body needs to survive, but missed iron? And "heart racing" from iron deficiency on the third day, then corrected immediately?

Yep, it's a spoof.

lyesit• 13 years ago

It would seem that all the benefits the author described are relative to his health before he started this diet. Is it possible then that the diet corrected some previous nutrient deficiency and that the same result could have been obtained by just taking a multivitamin or something?

kvprashant2• 13 years ago

Dr. Hyde, is that you?!

kvprashant2• 13 years ago

UPDATE: The site is now down. Probably too much load and MySQL service has been shut down

nathan_f772• 13 years ago

Here's a more realistic version: http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html

NotThatGuyToo• 13 years ago

Very suspicious indeed but here's something similar backed by science.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/12/28/aging-longevi...

kazuya• 13 years ago

Strange, no mention about excretions. The author did blood tests but no urine tests.

How I Stopped Eating Food

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